Trick-or-Treat
by waitingfox22
Summary: Modern AU. One-Shot. Jearmin. Jean has no idea what to do this Halloween night. That is until he figures that he should prank his arch nemisis, Eren. On his way to commit the prank Jean runs into a masked teen; who wants joins him on his pranking scheme.


Disclaimer: Attack on Titan is not mine!

Warnings: OOC-ness, mild cursing, slight shonen-ai, etc.

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><p>Halloween night - the night when young boys and girls dress-up and go door-to-door for free sweets. The adults either are forced into doing their children's bidding or go out and party amongst themselves. However, this night was an odd night for those in their teenage years. For most they chose to either act like a child or act like an adult, but there were those that went a little too far in the meaning of "trick" in the term "trick-or-treat"…<p>

Jean Kirstein is your typical loud-mouth, soccer-loving, teenage boy. When it came to the subject of Halloween he was never a huge fan. He only ever participated because of his best friend Marco. And this year will be Jean's first year without Marco; seeing as how he was lost in a tragic incident earlier in the year. Jean was stuck on what to do. He was too old for trick-or-treating and never cared for that anyway, and he didn't want to stay home because his parents were going out and he refused to have to deal with trick-or-treaters. So the teen went to school that morning, since Halloween landed on a Friday this year, with thoughts on what he should do that night. Unfortunately it looked like Jean's morning was going to be as bad as the night. As soon as he walked past the school gates he was greeted by his arch nemesis from the soccer team, Eren Jaeger. For no reason whatsoever Eren was giving Jean the evilest of glares.

"What do you want Jaeger?" Jean growled as he stopped in front of the shorter male.

"Nothing, just dealing with how your ugly face has ruined my good morning." Eren huffed.

"No one said you had to look at me, and I'm not ugly!" Jean hissed, "What are you even doing here? Shouldn't you be heading to class with your sister?"

"I'm waiting for Armin you idiot." Eren rolled his eyes. "And if you want to fawn over my sister like you always do, she's not here today." He proceeded to explain. Just as Eren finished his sentence, a blond could be seen running right towards the gates. Jean scoffed as he watched. Even though he's never seen Armin, he's heard a lot about him. Like how Armin was a good kid, and was smartest person you could ever meet, but he clung to Eren like a security blanket; he never did anything for himself. Not wanting to be around Eren anymore Jean left, heading to class. Why should he care about his enemy's best friend for anyway? With a sigh Jean shook his head and took his seat in class. He didn't need to think about stuff like that. He had school and Halloween night to worry about. By the time lunch rolled around Jean had actually decided that he should just prank Eren, and maybe a few others. Though by this point he wasn't too sure how he should prank. So Jean figured who was better to ask than Connie? Connie was a pranking genius, at least school-wise.

"Hey there Jean-o what can I do for you?" Connie asked as soon as Jean walked up to him at lunch.

"I need some tips." Jean muttered at a volume that Connie almost didn't hear him.

"Tips? What kind of tips? Girl tips? Finally ready to ask out Mikasa?" Connie wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. Jean's face turned red.

"N-No, I'm not asking out Mikasa! I came for pranking tips!" Jean quickly explained himself.

"Oh! Alrighty then." Connie snickered. "So what kind of pranks are you thinking about? Halloween pranks right?" Jean gave his friend a nod. "Well there's lot you can do, like forking a lawn or ding dong ditching, but I'm pretty sure you're aiming to use this pranking against Eren. So you might want to try things like throwing toilet paper all over his house, yard, and even him!" Connie explained. Jean took a minute to think about.

"Sounds good." Jean nodded.

"Sweet, I hope you have enough toilet paper to pull this off. Good luck man." Connie gave Jean a thumbs up.

"Thanks." Jean waved good-bye and left to go eat his lunch. Tonight was going to be a good night.

When the time rolled around Jean had nabbed some extra toilet paper from his house and stuffed the rolls into a large backpack. He was dressed in darker colors, which in this case were a dark red plain shirt, a black hoodie, and a pair of dark ripped jeans.

"Jean we're heading out, you'll be fine right?" Jean's mom called from downstairs.

"Yeah mom! You and dad have a good time!" Jean called back. If only his parents knew what he was up to…

"Bye honey!" At that Jean heard the front door close. Going to peek out his window, Jean watched as his parents drove away. With a smirk Jean made his way downstairs. He grabbed the large bowl of candy he was supposed to hand out to trick-or-treaters and placed a "Grab one each" sign in the bowl. He then set it on a small table outside of the door. Jean locked the house door behind him as went out and walked down the sidewalk. The sun was slowly setting and kids were starting to leave their homes. Jean saw princesses and knights, dogs and pirates. Kids were so silly. Shaking his head Jean readjusted his backpack and looked up to the sky. Eren lived in a community that was quite a bit a ways away. He had to walk the whole way there. With a deep intake of breath, Jean started walking. It grew dark quick and Jean was slightly on edge as he walked past the woods that separated the different communities. Even though he'd never admit it, ever snap of a branch and rustling of leaves put Jean on edge. When there was one particular loud branch cracking Jean wiped his head towards the woods.

"Is someone there?!" He steadied his breath as he tried to spot something. It was quiet and nothing else moved. Taking the risk Jean turned back around and went back to walking. Though he only took ten more steps before a hand grasped his shoulder and a voice whispered:

"It's not safe to walk alone at night." Jean jumped and maneuvered out of the strangers grip. He turned around to see a short blond male with a white ski mask over his face. Jean just about screamed, but he tried to play it cool.

"Who are you?" Jean huffed.

"That's for me to know and for you to find out." The stranger giggled. Jean growled, but then the stranger moved again. He walked around Jean in a circle. "What's in the backpack? You planning on doing something you're not supposed to?"

"Now that's for me to know, and for you to leave me the hell alone!" Jean shouted, which the noise caused some birds to get spooked and fly off.

"You're mean!" The blond whined and put a hand under his chin.

"And you're some stranger that's bugging me. Go away!" Jean finally turned away from the stranger and readied himself to start walking again.

"Wait!" Jean paused and looked back.

"Let me help you. I don't want to spend Halloween night alone. I got ditched by my best friend…" The blond scratched at the back of his head and sighed. Jean suddenly felt bad. He could tell that his kid was being honest.

"Fine… I was going to TP my rival's house. The brat totally deserves it!" Jean announced.

"TP? That's awesome! You're definitely going to need as many hands as you can get. Throwing toilet paper isn't as easy as you might think." The blond clapped slightly and Jean could tell he was smiling under the mask.

"I guess you have a point. Let's go. I don't want to get caught." Jean started up walking, the blond following right behind. It was pretty quiet for a while. The silence was broken by the blond.

"May I ask the name of your 'rival'?"

"Eren Jaeger. He has this huge attitude problem that I can't stand. The only time we ever get along is when we're playing a soccer game. Neither one of us wants to get kicked off the team after all." Jean explained. It was strange how the blond made everything seem pretty peaceful – even with that stupid mask on.

"I see. I know that guy. In fact I know that he's out with his boyfriend and I know a shortcut through the woods that can get us to his house faster than by traveling this sidewalk." The blond snickered a bit.

"Boyfriend? I didn't know he had a boyfriend. It's not that Armin guy is it? Though I guess that makes sense, poor guy is stuck to him like glue." Jean scoffed.

"NO!" The blond shouted all of a sudden, "Eren's boyfriend is a guy named Bertholdt." Jean blinked in surprise at the blond. He didn't know why he needed to shout. But that news was surprising. Eren and Bertholdt? Jean could have never guessed that.

"Oh… Um, so you said something about a shortcut?" Jean quickly changed the subject.

"Right…It's this way." The blond held out his hand for Jean to take. Jean nervously took the other's hand. After all the fact that he's going into the dark woods with a kid in a mask suddenly dawned on him. But as soon as the blond's hand was in his own Jean felt calmer. It was so small compared to his own, and it was soft too.

"Hey…before we go in the woods, what should I call you? I mean I don't want to call you Blondie or whatever the whole night." Jean asked as he tightened his grip on the other slightly.

"I don't really know… I guess you can call me Aru. And since I've given that bit of information, what should I call you?" The blond replied.

"My name's Jean." Jean smiled a bit in pride as he presented his name.

"It's nice to meet you Jean. Now let's go, we got to get finished before Eren returns home." Aru finally tugged on Jean's hand and the pair walked into the woods. Overall the woods were dark and considerably creepy. But as Jean was walking behind Aru, it was if the blond was a beacon of light in the darkness. Never once did Jean pay any attention to the woods, save for when he had to dodge tree branches. Along the way, Aru would occasionally start talking.

"Is there any reason behind you and Eren are rivals?" He asked at one point.

"At first I saw nothing wrong with the guy. But then he'd always boast about the things he could do. I tried to pay no mind. I even figured I could be friends with him if I tried. Though I guess the real reason behind our rivalry would be because I'm jealous." Jean sighed as he answered.

"Jealous?" Aru inquired.

"Well you know Mikasa right, Eren's sister?" Jean questioned.

"I know her." Aru replied and nodded.

"You see, I think she's super pretty and smart. So at one time I tried to ask her out – and I failed. To add salt to the wound, when I tried asking her out I complemented her hair. Not two minutes later she was with Eren and he had said that she should cut her hair. Without second thought she agreed! I was just so angry that Eren had all her attention that I never wanted to trust him…You get what I'm saying?" Jean explained the best he could.

"I get it. Mikasa and Eren are extremely close. Though she's staring to get better about overbearing on Eren… I mean, she hates his boyfriend simply because she can't seem to see Eren with anyone but herself. No one can tell if it's because she loves him or is just protective." Aru giggled a little bit. Jean nodded; he guessed he understood what the other was saying. Though something else came to mind at that moment.

"Say, it sounds like you know Jaeger pretty well. So I'm guessing you must be some kind of friend of his." Jean pointed out.

"I am." Aru gave a nod.

"Then why are you helping me trash his house?" Jean asked.

"Because sometimes Eren deserves it…" Aru trailed off, as if he wanted to add something, but he was too afraid to say it. By this time the boys made it to the edge of the woods. They were in a whole new community.

"So which way now?" Jean asked as he looked around. He didn't exactly know this part of this community.

"It's just around the corner and is the final house on the street, which is a dead end street by the way." Aru answered and started walking on ahead. Jean nodded and followed right behind the blond. On the way the pair was passed by a few kids. They would stare at Aru; some in fear, others in curiosity. Anyone that was afraid tried to be as far away from the blond as possible, while the curious ones would stop him and ask him questions. Jean was amazed at how Aru treated the kids. If the kids were scared he'd play along and give them a "Boo!", and if they asked questions he'd happily answer. After answering one child Aru turned back around to Jean.

"Sorry, I know this is wasting our time." The blond rubbed the back of his head.

"It's fine." Jean admitted, "It's kind of neat to see you treat the kids the way you do."

"Thanks. Halloween is for the kids, so I might as well play along with them." Aru stated before looking down the street; Jean could tell he was looking at Eren's house.

"In any case I don't see any more kids, let's get down there and do this quick." Jean stated as he adjusted his backpack and started walking.

"Jean wait." Aru grabbed the other's arm carefully.

"What is it?" Jean stopped and looked back at the blond.

"TP isn't a big deal…but just in case you should hide your face. That way the neighbors and stuff don't snitch on you to Eren. I don't want to see you get in trouble." Aru explained. Jean swore the blond was pouting behind his mask.

"Right, thanks for reminding me." Jean flipped up his hood. "But hey, does this mean you planned on doing something like this yourself, I mean; you are wearing a mask with normal clothes on." Immediately Aru scratched at the back of his head.

"Well… I just didn't want people to see my face. I wanted to prove I could be scary… My face isn't exactly scary."

"You couldn't have put up on make-up or something like that?" Jean asked.

"No, I'd be too recognizable." Aru shook his head.

"Alright. Now for the last time, let's do this!" Jean grinned and turned once more to face the way to Eren's house. Aru was right behind him as they walked to the front of the building. Jean was surprised to see that there were no decorations up or even something set up for trick-or-treaters. The lights were out and with this being the last house on the street it almost appeared abandoned. Pulling off his backpack Jean placed it right in front of himself. He zipped it open, revealing the toilet paper inside.

"Good none of the rolls looked damaged." Aru pointed out as he took a roll out of the bag. Jean nodded and grabbed a roll for himself. "Now Jean, throwing TP isn't very hard, but not too easy either. You have to get it where it'll unravel but also go as far as it needs." Aru explained as he pulled his arm back and tossed the roll in his hand. It went up and over the tree in Eren's yard and landed on the ground without breaking any sheets. Aru then went to go grab the roll again. He broke the sheets so that when he threw it again a new line of TP was made. The whole time the blond was giggling. With a smirk on his face Jean walked into the yard. He looked upwards at the house roof. Reading his arm Jean aimed and tossed. The TP flew up to the roof and got stuck.

"How's that for a first time throw?" Jean asked Aru.

"You did great. Now let's get the rest of the house!" Aru ran back to the backpack and grabbed more rolls. By the time the boys went through all the toilet paper Eren's house and yard were covered. The boys were resting on the sidewalk admiring their work. They were laughing at one another and were individually trying to think of something else to do.

"That was fun." Aru admitted when he stopped laughing and leaned against Jean's shoulder.

"It was…" Jean agreed and looked over at Aru. "You know, we spent this whole night together and now that we finished with the prank…can I see your face?" Aru removed himself from Jean's shoulder and was obviously staring at Jean. In fact, Jean could see Aru's ears and he could have sworn they looked a little red. Was he embarrassed?

"You really want me to?" Aru asked. Jean just nodded. Aru took a few seconds to think about it. He then slowly brought his hands to the mask. It was as if the world around them stopped as Aru pulled his mask upwards. Jean was met with a soft-looking round face and a button nose. Aru's eyes were closed up until the time the mask was at the top of his head. He then opened his eyes, revealing a sky blue color. Jean was speechless…Nothing could prepare him for how, well, cute Aru was. And as soon as Jean noticed Aru's blush, he too started to turn red.

"…You're right your face isn't that scary." Jean mumbled, not knowing what to say.

"Yeah…" Aru sighed a bit.

"Hey," Jean made Aru flinch from the suddenness, "don't sound sad!" Aru smiled a bit. "Better." Jean turned his head away, trying to hide his current blushing.

"Thank you so much for this night Jean. I hope we can meet again soon." Aru suddenly went to stand.

"Oh…" Jean forgot that Aru was this stranger that he barely knew. "I hope to see you again too."

"Bye." Aru gave Jean a smile before he began walking away. And when he was a good enough distance away, he started to run. What did Jean do to scare the boy off? Sighing Jean got up himself. He had a long walk home…

The whole weekend Jean's thoughts were filled with thoughts of Aru. He had to see the boy again. Jean's brain kept telling him that the blond had to go to his school. He knew Eren and Mikasa after all! So Jean told himself that he had to find him, no matter what. The blond just filled the empty space that Marco had left behind. Jean just knew it meant a whole lot. So that following Monday Jean got to school as early as he could. And this time when he saw Eren by the gates he didn't say a word.

"What happened Jean? Are you not going to say 'good morning'?" Eren scoffed lightly as Jean walked by him. Jean stopped, but only to turn around and glare. He took a second to think. Aru and Eren were friends right? So then…maybe Eren would tell him where the blond was.

"Hey Jaeger…" Jean began, but stopped when he saw a blond walking towards the school. That was Armin wasn't it though?

"Are you seriously okay Jean? Hello?" Eren waved a hand in front of Jean's face. But Jean paid no mind; he was too focused on the blond. The head of blond hair was so familiar…but it couldn't be…

"Eren I'm so sorry!" The blond heading this way shouted, but he then halted. Familiar blue eyes stared at Jean, slowly growing wider.

"Finally you're here Armin! Come on Jean's acting all kinds of weird." Eren walked over to the blond and grabbed his arm. But Armin didn't budge.

"Eren," The blond pushed Eren off of his arm, "you go on ahead, I'll be just a second." Eren looked at his best friend questioningly, but left anyway. "Now Jean I-I can explain…" Armin squeaked and avoided Jean's gaze.

"So your real name is Armin…" Jean muttered. His mind was overflowing with all kinds of thoughts. But no matter what came up, he just couldn't be mad… In fact, he still felt the same about Armin as he had felt about "Aru".

"It is…I'm sorry for lying to you." Armin slowly started to look back up at Jean.

"Trick-or-treat." Jean suddenly blurted out.

"What?" Armin cocked his head to the side.

"Trick-or-treat." Jean repeated, his cheeks turning a slight red.

"…Um, treat?" Armin too turned a tad red. Not a second later Jean's lips were on Armin's own. The kiss was short and soon enough Jean pulled back. Armin was a blushing mess and he looked at Jean, evidently full of questions.

"You're much cuter than Mikasa…just so you know." Jean muttered.

"Of course I'll go out with you…" Armin smiled and began to chuckle. Jean just smiled back. It looks like Halloween night was more than just a silly children's holiday. "Now let's get to class." Armin took Jean's hand; just like when the two were in the woods. Jean happily followed… And seeing Eren's surprised face in the hall only made things better.


End file.
